How We Met
by MaiaKittyMeow
Summary: A fic where every chapter is a new one shot story, with a different AU. I will take suggestions through Reviews, PM or Twitter if you fancy.


**this fanfic is going to be a AU oneshot booklet, kind of like New Romantics. i even talked to Nightslightss to see if she would be okay with that and she is. ive been meaning to do this for a while. you can give me suggestions in the reviews too if you want.**

**The Salt To My Pepper**

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><p>Piper knew about the coffee shop on the corner since its humble beginnings. Every day she would pass it on her morning run, glancing at it to see how much progress had been done since the day before. The old brick corner shop used to a not-so-good deli, like Subway with old ingredients as Piper would describe it. She was glad it was closed and being refurbished into a coffee joint, where she could get a nice latte on her morning runs, catch up with Polly, and maybe meet some new people.<p>

She stopped in her tracks and wiped the sweat droplets from her forehead when she noticed rustic letters being hung above the old fashioned revolving door.

RED'S CAFÉ in all capital letters. She turned the corner, passed the door (that she would love to try out, maybe it was the kid inside her) when she saw a wild haired woman sitting on the bucket facing the wall, making a dent into the bricks with a drill.

Piper approached her cautiously. "What…what are you doing?"

"It's uh, an art piece representing the futility of blue-collar labor in a technological age. And vaginas."

Piper went wide eyed and the woman chuckled. "Or I'm bored as fuck. Ma wanted me out of there because I'm a nuisance." She spoke, stopping her drilling. "Go do something productive" she added, with a pretty well practiced Russian accent, as if she'd been mimicking the woman for years. She dropped her drill and stood, brushing off her pants, before holding out her hand.

"I'm Nicky, Nicky Nichols"

Piper accepted the hand, after wiping the sweat off her own. "I'm Piper Chapman"

Piper looked through the tall windows that almost stretched from ceiling to floor. The café looked pristine and well decorated. Classic but rustic, but modern.

"Your mother did a good job cleaning this place up"

"Eh, mother figure" Nicky corrected. She grew a crooked smile on her face. "Hey chapman, you should come by tomorrow. It's our grand opening. First customer gets a coffee card for three free coffees"

Piper smiled and pushed golden sweaty (despite it being late fall) strands of hair out of her face, persistent on getting it behind her ear. "Sure, I go for morning runs anyway"

"I can tell" the strawberry blonde looked piper up and down before smirking.

_Well, shes nots shy._

Piper started to jog away, turning after about 20 feet to wave and give a breathy "see you tomorrow"

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><p>Piper approached the corner revolving door and smiled before pushing through it. She was odviously the first person there as it was early and the place was empty besides a brunette behind the counter, who was clad in a red apron, tight black shirt and matching tight jeans underneath. Her hair was tied in a lose careless up-do and she was drawing on a yellow legal pad out of boredom, sitting on a stool and hunched over, loose black locks curtaining her face. She didn't bother to look up when piper entered, just kept drawing and pushing up her thick black rimmed glasses.<p>

"Welcome to reds" she mumbled in a low, monotone voice, finishing up the last touches of a damn good drawing of a giraffe in a suit.

"That's a cute drawing"

The brunette's eyes flickered up before she pushed the paper pad aside and stood straight.

"Holy shit, you're tall"

Piper covered her mouth, as if swearing at the age of 22 years old was a crime. The barista smirked, putting her hand on her hip.

"I've been told…what are you getting?"

"Do you have iced vanilla chai?"

"Isn't it a little cold out for an iced chai?" the barista quipped

_True, it is October 11__th__._

She pulled a pen out of the breast pocket of her apron, causing Pipers eyes to linger there for a second too long. Low hanging apron, low cut shirt.

_Shit._

Piper shifted her eyes to the name tag to cover up her stare. ALEX it read.

"Can I get a name?" Alex spoke, causing Piper to look up. She was wearing a smirk as she pushed her glasses into her hair and pulled a cup from a stack emerging from a hole in the counter.

"A-Alex…shit I mean Piper Chapman" Piper stuttered. She gave herself a mental 'could've had a v8' hit to her head. _Full name, really?_

Alex chuckled at the flustered blonde and raised an eyebrow. Piper took the chance to really look into the baristas eyes.

And if they weren't the most stunning eyes she had ever seen_._ Stormy evergreen, extenuated with two perfect swipes of black cattail eyeliner. They lit up when she laughed.

Alex looked down, writing a name on the cup and turning to make Pipers order. The blonde took this chance to check Alex out again. You could see her shoulder blades and her hourglass figure from how tight the shirt is.

_And god, her ass looks great in those jeans._

Alex turned back and passed the finished drink over. Their hands met for a brief moment and sent fire crawling under the skin of both their arms. Their eyes connected for a few seconds before Piper hesitantly broke it to look for her wallet. Piper paused and looked back up when she felt a porcelain hand on hers.

"It's on me kid"

"You realize that means you get the three free coffees card technically"

"Exactly"

Piper realizes that Alex never pulled her hand away and blushes. A second later Alex does and smirks. Piper looks dumbly at the cup in her hand. She turns it to see perfectly sprawled, all capital letters, handwriting.

**Pepper.**

"You spelt my name wrong"

Alex's smirk grew into a full on Cheshire smile and Piper realized the barista was messing with her.

"wups"

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><p>Piper had to admit, the coffee was really fucking good. But that's not why she kept going back every day. She went back the next day, hoping Alex wouldn't think it was funny to write Pepper again.<p>

She didn't write Pepper again. Nope.

She wrote Paper Clipman.

"Really?"

Alex smirked and motioned for her to turn the cup. There was a piece of yellow paper, folded and paper clipped to a useless cup sleeve.

"Oh I get it. Clever" Piper said sarcastically, even though she was inwardly smiling.

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><p>"Pip5er? There is a 5 in it"<p>

"It's silent…what, never seen that movie?"

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><p>It went on like that. The day Piper glared at Alex for a perverted comment Alex wrote Prude instead of Piper, the day she ordered a Christmas mocha Alex wrote Peppermint, and the day Piper kept messing up her words, Alex wrote "Peter Piper picked a peck of pickled peppers"<p>

"At least my name is in it this time"

It became a thing. Alex would write her name wrong and piper would pretend to be angry.

"_When is this not going to be funny to you anymore?" Piper asked._

"_You're such a…one sec" Alex chuckled and wrote on the cup with her sharpie, before turning it to Piper, showing that she wrote Party Pooper._

Piper had met the rest of the workers, but she always was served by Alex, so the one day she was out sick, Piper caught herself frowning.

She especially frowned at how Tricia, a blonde worker with cornrows and a neck tattoo, wrote Piper on her cup.

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><p>"y'know, your kinda the pepper to my salt" Alex said one day, as Piper approached the counter.<p>

"Very funny"

"No look" Alex turned and pointed to her shoulder, a tattoo she had never seen before showing because Alex wore a tank top that day. It was a salt shaker. Sure she had seen all Alex's tattoos before (or at least she thinks she has) but this one had to be her favorite.

Piper smiled. "Just a drip with cream, salt"

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><p>"What are you doing for Halloween? It's in two days" Alex asked casually as she made Piper's pumpkin spice latte, scribbling Pumpkin on the cup.<p>

"I don't know, I was thinking I could sit at home and eat candy, like a loser. You?"

"Well, I was going to go to this loser party with my loser friends, but, I was thinking, you should come with"

"Really?"

"Yeah, then we could come to my house and eat candy like losers, and watch Bandslam"

"Bandslam?"

"That movie. Piper with a 5"

Piper nodded and smiled, remembering the reference Alex made and sipping her latte. She was behind the counter, sitting up on it and kicking her feet. Alex would tap Pipers TOMS whenever her foot rose, just to get that touch.

"Okay" Piper mumbled around her straws.

"Is that a yes?"

"Yeah."

"We should go as Salt and Pepper, those assholes from Blue's Clues"

Piper blushed and shifted from kicking one foot to the other. "You mean like a couples costume?"

Alex shrugged and threw a genuine smile, "maybe"

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><p>"Nope, Twix are mine, I called them." Alex mumbled. They her sitting cross-legged on Alex's huge apartment floor, their piles of candy in front of them, exchanging and organizing. They had ditched the party at some point to trick or treat before heading home. Piper was wearing a black dress and Alex was wearing a white one (even though Alex complained about how she didn't look good in white, to which Piper had to disagree after one look of Alex in the skintight dress). They were wearing a pair of cheesy Claire's friendship necklaces that were salt and pepper shakers. They constantly had to explain throughout the night that "yes, we are salt and pepper" and "no, we are not a couple"<p>

"That's not fair, I like Twix too."

"So? You called all the dum-dums"

"You don't even like dum-dums!"

"I like the cherry ones"

Piper sighed and handed over her three cherry dum-dums, so she could keep the two Twix she got.

"I'd rather have the Twix's"

Piper playfully shoved Alex. "Stop whining, you big baby"

"No, the big baby is Boo, who literally dressed up as a big baby"

"That was weird"

Alex nodded her agreement before the two bursted out into laughter, remembering how the Mad Hatter (Nicky) and Alice (her girlfriend Lorna) had to keep Big Boo from drunkenly grinding on women throughout Lorna's large house.

"Come on, let's watch the movie now"

And they did, only about halfway through though as lingering glances were cast back and forth and nether were really paying attention to it. Their eyes caught on each other and Alex was about to joke about how Piper was missing the good parts when the blonde took Alex's face in hers and connected their lips.

Alex was stunned for a second before she weaved her hands into golden hair and kissed back. Their lips melted together perfectly for a few minutes before they pulled away, gasping and foreheads touching.

"I was starting to wonder if I was barking up the wrong tree" Alex said, her famous smirk coming back.

"Shut up and kiss me, salt" Piper mumbled and pulled Alex back to her.

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><p>"So wait, that's why there is a bunch of coffee cups lying around your house?" Polly asks.<p>

Piper nods before sipping her wine. I could never find myself to throw the cups away"

Lorna and Polly are sitting at the kitchen island as Piper was making snacks, while Pete, Alex, and Nicky were in the living room, picking movies. It had turned into some sort of tradition with the group where they would gather at Alex's apartment (where Piper had recently moved into) every Sunday to have a movie night.

"But she got your name wrong on every cup, doesn't that annoy you?"

"Nope, I mean, the first couple times maybe, but it became a cute inside joke."

Polly scrunched up her face. "That's really how you two met?"

"I think its romantic" Lorna says, smiling as she painted her nails. Piper motioned to Lorna while looking at Polly in a way of saying "see, she thinks so"

"What is?" Alex asks as she comes into the kitchen, wraps her arms around Piper and kissing her temple before turning to the fridge to grab a beer.

"The story on how we met, Polly doesn't think so" Piper says, absentmindedly playing with the tiny pepper shaker necklace hanging from her neck.

"It's a great story" Alex says, emerging from being crouched at the fridge to wrapping her arms around Piper again.

Polly sighs, giving up, and they all make their way to the living room to watch the first movie of the night that Alex chose. Bandslam.

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><p><strong>i love you and please leave some reviews. i just love the idea of doing on fanfiction consisting of one shot AU's. tell me what you think.<strong>

**Until Next Time, 3**

**MKM**


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